When Water Turns Risky: Linking Stakeholder Behavioral Preferences to Drinking Water Emergency Outcomes

Effective response to drinking water contamination is critical to minimizing its harm, yet its outcomes often depend not only on technical preparedness but also on stakeholder behavior. This study investigates how behavioral preferences (i.e., individual tendencies in how people value future outcomes, perceive and respond to risk, and interact with others) and prior knowledge influence decision-making in a simulated water crisis. A total of 130 participants completed a behavioral preference survey and engaged in a five-party serious game simulating an acute drinking water contamination incident. Analyses at individual, group, and role levels revealed that decisions related to communication, action-taking, and satisfaction were largely driven by role responsibilities, with limited behavioral preference effects. However, aggregated behavioral preferences, e.g., group-averaged probability weighting and loss aversion, explained collective decision-making patterns. The role-specific analysis further revealed the interactions between certain behavioral preferences and role performance: for instance, altruism reduced residents' likelihood of demanding compensation but increased the contamination exposure rate. Taken together, these findings suggest that behavioral preferences are a modifiable component of emergency preparedness. These findings underscore the importance of institutional clarity, leveraging behavioral diversity, and training that integrates behavioral assessment and cross-role learning to enhance the water emergency response.